In Charge
by featherwriting
Summary: An alternative plot to 'Secrets'. Contains some language and Artie/Zan femslash smut, set with slightly older characters.


_**In Charge**_

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><p>Harm's knife grazes Artemis's cheekbone, drawing a line of crimson. If she had not jerked away from the moment it neared her eye, it would have killed her as it struck its desired target, and that was enough to stun her for a moment.<p>

"Shit, Artemis, you're bleeding," Zatanna says concerned, and close to Artemis's side.

"I'm fine," Artemis replies, touching the cut and tinting her fingertips red. She reaches behind for her arrows, but air swipes past her hand, and there is nothing left to fire. Desperate to find something, Artemis swipes again and is met with a single arrow.

Zatanna stands rooted to the spot, her pale blue eyes wide with fear and uncertainty as Harm charges forward, a wicked smile playing on his lips, his eyes narrowed uncharacteristically.

"Zatanna," Artemis whispers. When Zatanna looks to her, she nods her head to the right. "Jump as soon as it fogs."

Without waiting for a reply, Artemis throws the arrow before Harm, and as it strikes the ground, the special arrow head busts and a thick fog issues to conceal the current rooftop.

Zatanna had already begun to run and reached the edge of the roof before Artemis. With a glance over her shoulder to make sure the latter's following, Zatanna leaps, not for the next rooftop but a few stories below. Artemis leaps blindly, following Zatanna's exact arc through the alley, and sees the broken window through the dusk that Zatanna must have flown through. Diving, Artemis plummets into the small, black entrance, hits the floor hard, and using her combat skills, rolls on her shoulder to avoid strain on her neck. Bounding up as soon as the balls of her feet touch the ground, she says nothing to avoid attention and looks for Zatanna.

The magician is not there, but then again, it is very dark. A door creaks. Artemis just makes out a closet door is ajar. Bolting for the door, she whirls inside it and shuts it. A pair of hands wraps around her left arm and Zatanna presses her body against Artemis's back, trying to hold herself still as Artemis can feel her quivering. Artemis licks her lips as she peers through the crack in the closet door. The metallic taste of blood hints on her tongue and she knows the cut on her cheek has trailed down her face since she last paid attention.

The broken window sends jagged shadows and an oddly-shaped shaft of moonlight onto the floor. This apartment is abandoned and the window could very well have been broken for a long time. A good cover-up.

A figure abruptly appears in the shaft of light and Zatanna's gloved hand snakes around Artemis's neck to clasp over the blonde's mouth. The hand stops the gasp that had caused her chest to tense and alert the magician. The two stand utterly silent and still as the shadow of Harm crouches in the shattered window. If Artemis looks closely, the pieces of broken glass, even where she had skid on the floor moments before, has a fine coat of dust already blanketing them. Harm is smart, and would notice this. He would believe they could not have come in through this way if the dust did not show their paths.

Harm disappears as suddenly as he appeared, and Zatanna slowly removes her hand from Artemis's lips. Still, Artemis can feel the younger girl shaking, and turns for her in the dark, cramped closet.

"Are you okay?" Artemis's slightly graveled voice murmurs through the dead air.

"The window," Zatanna says, her hands leaving Artemis's arm. "The jagged glass cut me as I jumped through it."

Artemis blindly feels Zatanna's face for the cut, but the magician takes her roaming hand and moves it to her shoulder, just above her collarbone, where a gash seeps blood. It is forked so that gash splits with one line moving down Zatanna's shoulder, and the other line slides down onto her shoulder blade. Artemis pulls back and rubs her fingers to feel the amount of blood. Her fingers slip against each other and she deems the gash is deep enough for attention.

"We have to go," Artemis whispers urgently. She peels off her motorcycle jacket and rips a piece from the sleeve, immediately working on wrapping Zatanna's wounded shoulder.

"I'll be fine."

Artemis finishes the bandage and leaves her hand rested there for a moment. Zatanna places a reassuring hand on hers. After a moment, fingers curl under Artemis's hand and pull it away from the shoulder. They stand there, holding hands, in the dark of the closet.

Artemis nearly starts when fingers touch her cheek but she knows it is just Zatanna and she waits as those fingers gently move up to just under her eye, running the length of the horizontal cut to her hairline. Zatanna feels Artemis flinch, knowing the cut is tender, but it has already begun to dry up and would be healed within days.

The mood in the atmosphere shifts then, with Zatanna's hand on Artemis's face, and they both feel it. There is a pause, the other determining the either's reaction, and then they move in unison. The dim twilight through the crack of the closet is enough for Artemis to see Zatanna moving towards her, her rosy lips parting. Their lips meet, firm on tender, sure against hesitant. The kiss does not last longer than a second, but Zatanna pulls away and mutters an apology under her breath. Her face tilts down like in guilt.

Artemis reaches up from their grasped hands and takes Zatanna's jaw. She lifts the magician's petite face up to hers, silver gray eyes peering into sky blue. A hand touches Artemis's shoulder, implying to just rest there, when in a swift move, the hand is on Artemis's neck, and pulls their mouths together, the momentum throwing the blonde against the dark-haired and against the wall. Artemis's other hand moves to Zatanna's ribs, holding her in place, pressed against the wall. The fabric of the magician's coat feel strange against her now exposed stomach and she feels underneath it, moving to the front and popping open the buttons. She helps the wounded girl out of the coat and then goes for the vest with the little bowtie at the top. It does not take long and Zatanna's torso is mostly exposed, save the black lacy bra. Artemis feels the fringes, rubbing them between her index and thumb and murmurs against Zatanna's swollen lips, "This is nice. I might just like to rip it."

"In that case-" and Zatanna reaches up and with a tear, rips Artemis's mask in halves, the pieces falling to the dusty floor. The action is so surprising, Artemis freezes, and then without warning, pries two fingers on the small section between the cups of the bra and jerks. The bra snaps and Zatanna's bountiful breasts are free. The magician reaches around Artemis, looking up at her with a sexily challenging expression, finds the zipper to the top, and pulls. The archer shrugs out of the article and throws it away to the side.

Before Artemis can reclaim Zatanna's lips, Zatanna ducks in and latches her mouth to Artemis's slender neck. She nips a piece of the soft skin, emitting a short moan from the archer, and kisses up to her ear, breathing a hot stream across the sensitive cartilage. Artemis growls and drags Zatanna up the wall, guiding a leg to wrap around her waist. Pressed together with Zatanna sitting on Artemis's hips, their lips find each other in a bruising fight. Zatanna grips Artemis's shoulders, digging her nails to the bone, wanting the blonde as close to her body as possible, while Artemis's hands slide up and down the smooth skin of the dark-haired girl's toned sides. Zatanna releases and reaches between them to grab the thin white bra separating their breasts, and breaks it. Artemis pulls the broken clothing from her arms and then cranes her neck to nibble on the magician's breast. Zatanna throws her head back against the wall with a muffled thud, her mouth open in an inaudible groan, and her eyes clench shut. That archer's tongue… works wonders.

By the time Artemis finishes each breast, Zatanna is quivering in pleasure. But the fatal mistake was standing there a moment to revel in her power as Zatanna runs her hands up Artemis's arms, grabs her wrists, drops from her waist, and in a single step, whirls. Artemis is then pressed against the wall, Zatanna behind her, holding both her wrists in one hand behind the blonde's back. Artemis mumbles something, playfully angry at the turn of events, and feels her hairband tug from her hair. Her cold blonde hair rushes over her beautiful back, emitting shivers, and Zatanna is brushing it aside so as to place her lips on the back of her neck. Artemis's eyes flutter, a moan slipping, and Zatanna makes her way back to the girl's ear.

"I take it you don't like being _not_ in charge?" Zatanna mocks.

Artemis snarls in her throat.

Zatanna trails her free hand up Artemis's spine, feeling her trembling, and then viciously takes a handful of the gorgeous blonde hair. Artemis's head tilts back with an inward gasp rushing past her teeth. The magician hums appreciatively and then bites the vulnerable neck. Artemis's fingers snatch at the skin of the torturer's stomach, but she cannot grab her and is helpless to the treatment.

Suddenly, Zatanna takes her hand from Artemis's hair, slides it down the blonde's bare side, still wrecking shivers in her wake, slips around the front, and digs fingers beneath Artemis's waistband. Artemis cannot stop the hand that moves past her waistband and into her lacy underwear and nearly slams her forehead against the wall in front of her as she fights to resist satisfying Zatanna with those fingers that are now massaging her in just the right place. After a few moments, friction builds as Zatanna moves her fingers faster, feeling how wet Artemis is becoming. She moves her head beside the archer's, watching with a lustful and entertained expression as Artemis clenches her eyes shut and her desirable lips part to pant. Zatanna moves a finger to Artemis's entrance, and with abandon, plunges in. Artemis gasps. Zatanna works her magic fingers as she inserts a second digit. She laughs throatily as Artemis bites her lip but fails to stop the keening noise. Artemis's captured hands ball up into fists, her mind fighting with her body to keep from building the feeling in the pit of her stomach. With Zatanna so wondrous, the feeling continues to sear through her body without any sign of ending, even slowing. Zatanna moves her thumb to Artemis's swollen nub and massages it, her hips grinding against Artemis's ass, pressing the blonde's body flat against the wall and heightening the experience. Zatanna suckles Artemis's neck, working faster and harder with her hand, and she delights in the moans dragging from archer's bruised lips.

Artemis cries out abruptly, high-pitched and whimpering, and her legs clamp on Zatanna's hand. Zatanna huskily laughs again as she feels Artemis clenching inside, wetting her fingers in her orgasm. The magician lets go of the captured hands and moves the same hand up into Artemis's hair, pulling her head back again to trap the cry as it dies in a kiss. Artemis's hands find the wall in front of her, needing to touch something like she might fall out of reality. Finally, Artemis turns around, weak and shaking but satiated and blissful, and looks up with shining eyes at the girl holding her.

"Do you get a turn?"

Zatanna smiles, her bright blue eyes gleaming mischievously. "We can save that for a later date."

"So we'll be doing this again?"

"I'd count on it." Zatanna leans down and plants an eager kiss on Artemis's soft lips.

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><p><strong>AN: I know, I know, I know. I know. I'm like one of a very small fanbase of ZatannaxArtemis shippers. I just saw them working perfectly together in this episode and liked their chemistry. Zanartie ftw! ^-^**

**Love those reviews!**

**-x**


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